Architecture In Context

The photographer has done a great job of shooting the City of London, with good exposure, interesting natural light at a time of day when the office lights are being switched on, and a long exposure that has given a nice (and currently very popular) effect on the Thames. A couple of things I think would improve the shot. I feel that the crop on the right and left of the shot could be tighter. There's a boat and not much else on the far left which would be best removed, and on the far right there is also room for some cropping. A little off the top and bottom of the image would allow the panoramic feel to be retained if desired. I've also got a suspicion that the shot needs a very slight clockwise rotation to get the scene level. But all-in-all a technically proficient and engaging shot.

This shot has real energy to it, and conveys excellently the context within which the red building exists. The traffic lights in full flow, and the bus and cars driving by, convey life without showing anyone in the scene. Getting exposure right at night when shooting artificial light sources can be tricky, especially when there are some darker areas in the scene. The photographer here has got this just right, not over-exposing the building, and allowing areas of darkness to achieve this.

This isn't a classic 'architecture' shot, but it grabbed me when I first saw it. The red leaves are clearly the star of the show, closely followed by the windows peeking through the trees like a pair of eyes. It gives a real sense of the setting of the house, and the time of day and warm sunlight add real atmosphere and pop the red leaves.

What a fascinating picture! It has everything - a fabulously composed and cropped study of this quirky and picturesque village, an incredible and dramatic backdrop, and a subtly processed image. The photographer has resisted any temptation to saturate the colours, choosing instead a more muted tone, but one which still allows the vibrancy of the coloured houses to be appreciated.

OK, so I'm a sucker for a snow scene, which helped this image to get into my Top 10. On closer inspection there doesn't seem to be much/any snow on the ground, so the snow falling may well turn out to be some clever software effect, but if so who cares, it worked on me! I like the colour treatment of the image, which gives it a properly winter feel, and I was also struck by the strong composition of the image. The strictly observed central positioning of the building works well against the angles of the bridge and riverbank, and the high view gives a real sense of the city over which the inhabitants of this parliament building rule.

This is a view of the Royal Albert Hall that I haven't seen photographed before. In the context of this brief I thought this shot worked perfectly, as the haze helps to demote the building itself, and brings the focus more onto the public spaces surrounding it, and the people going about their business.It's a nice composition that shows just enough, and the distribution of the people, if achieved naturally, is very fortuitous and well balanced.

Almost certainly not a view of Dubai you'll see on a travel site, but extremely interesting. It gives fantastic context for the city, rising as it does from the sands. The use of the pylons to provide some interest in the otherwise barren wasteland is clever, and bold and well composed.

Not strictly speaking architecture, but a man made object placed in the environment, and very well photographed. Using a slow shutter speed like this is the perfect approach for highlighting the immoveable nature of the statue, and the central positioning with some rock details in the foreground is well observed.

The thing I most loved about my winning image for this contest was the way in which the context provided for the building is almost entirely reflected in the building itself. But it has several other things going for it... a sunny day, which always shows a building off at its best; a well observed and neat crop; a great composition, with a shooting angle that creates some real energy in the shot; spot-on exposure; and a couple of people behind the glass to provide a human element and some scale. Then, to top it all off, we find out that it was shot on an iPhone! I'm sure a lot of architectural photographers with extremely expensive kit would be very happy with this shot.

I really liked this image, and it only narrowly missed a Top 10 for me. It's a great composition, shows enough of the background hills, an interesting subject, and shot on a beautiful sunny day. It looks like the tripod makes an appearance in the reflection, and that probably nudged this into 11th place!